Another Day of Sorting and Packing

Friday, 10 April, 2020

Day XXXIII of the Great Italian Lockdown was also my 90th day living in Varese this year.

It should have been the half way point of my 180 day stay in Italy. Instead, I only have two days left before flying home due to the impending cancellation of the Italian American football season.

FORZA ITALIA!

As I understand it, the Italian government today extended the Lockdown to at least May 3rd.

On that date, the Great Italian Lockdown will be in its 56th day.

YIKES!

Enzo Petrillo's wife Nency was

busy baking today for Easter

I have enjoyed Easter at their home the last two years but it is not to be in 2020.

Speaking of Enzo . . .

This is the form that Enzo had to get filled out in order to drive me to Milano's Malpensa Airport for the first leg of my trip home.

If we were to get pulled over by the police on our drive and did not have these papers properly filled out, we could get in big trouble for breaking the Prime Directive during the Lockdown, STAY AT HOME!

Enzo will be picking me up at The Bunker at 4:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday for my 7:00 a.m. flight to Rome.

Now, about my three flights to get home in the most safe fashion possible . . .

Our son Andrew instructed me that face masks, in order to work properly, must seal to your face securely.

Facial hair tends to disrupt that seal, so he strongly urged me to at least trim my bushy beard.

So today, I did.

All I had was a pair of scissors and a mirror. I trimmed as much of it off as I could but, in the end, it looked uneven and disheveled.

So I decided to just shave most of it off and for the first time in over 30 years, I had no beard.

Before and . . .

. . . After

I would not be able to pick myself out of a police photo line-up if they used this mug shot.

My sorting, throwing out and packing almost finished, I decided to go into the back yard to get a little Sun while I read today.

Lucky

The Nardi's FIERCE guard dog

The green chair looks like

a good spot for my needs

The view back to where I

took the previous photo

A gorgeous day near this

healthy cherry tree

At least I think it's a cherry tree.

I should have used this

chair carved out of a still in

the ground tree stump instead

Being outdoors by myself was a pleasant break from Bunker Life.

The Riddell company unveiled their new line of 2020 anti-Coronavirus line of football helmets.

I like it!

Finally, the theme song from the movie The Great Escape keeps replaying in my head for some strange reason.

https://youtu.be/MbsuAbTTsV8

A Hectic Day Both In the Bunker and OUT of It!

Thursday, 9 April, 2020

Day XXXII of the Great Italian Lockdown saw me somewhat abusing the Prime Directive.

I ventured outside The Bunker for a legitimate reason, a trip to my pharmacy trying to buy more gloves and face masks for my long flight home via three flights and four airports.

The face masks were no problem, I bought three good ones but the gloves were another matter.

I wound up heading into downtown Varese in search of the ever elusive gloves but all four pharmacies that I queued up to had the same answer, "No gloves until next week's shipment."

The sad thing was that in my haste leaving The Bunker to find the gloves, I forgot my iPhone at home.  So, I took no photos of my glorious trip into the outdoors.

Now in news from the net . . .

Italian Doctors and Nurses

kicking a little Coronavirus ass!

AWESOME!!!

 Then there is California's Coronavirus

situation that I'm about to enter

 When I got home, Skorpion Pietro Caprioli

surprised me with this fun going home video

GRAZIE PIETRO!!!

The majority of my afternoon was spent sorting and packing my belongings. I'm now about 95% ready for the trip home.

In the evening, I joined another great

90 minute American football clinic

via the Zoom platform with

our Coaches Exchanging group

We had another good session. Tonight  Salzburg Bulls Head Coach Nick Johansen talked about "The Power Running Game and Compliments."

These clinics have been a great diversion to be sure during our communal lockdown.

My HUGE chocolate Easter egg was

teed up and ready for consumption

Thankfully for me svelte waistline, the egg is hollow.

My Marching Orders Arrived

Wednesday, 8 April, 2020

Day XXXI of the Great Italian Lockdown, also day 36 since our last Varese Skorpions football practice, turned out to be more than just somewhat interesting to those of us living in The Bunker.

Well, that would be just me.

It was a day of revelation!

This little ditty pretty much

summed up my mood today

It all started with a WhatsApp message from Enzo Petrillo late Tuesday night.

We'll need a background first . . .

 FIDAF is our federation in 

charge of our beloved,

beleaguered sport

The Italian Olympic Committee,

aka, CONI, figures into our story

prominently today too

When our Coronavirus Lockdown was imminent over a month ago, CONI and the Italian Ministry of Sport asked for a meeting with representatives of all of Italy's sports federations to discuss a joint approach to dealing with the postponement, restarting dates and potential cancellation of seasons.

At that meeting, all of the sports federations agreed to work through CONI before announcing any decisions about the status of their 2020 seasons. It was further agreed that CONI would make one announcement at some point in time that would cover the status of all of the sports federations at the age time.

About two week ago, the Rugby Federation broke ranks deciding to announce the cancellation their season despite their agreement to let CONI be the all-sports spokesperson.

The Rugby Federation, believed that it made no sense to keep waiting on CONI when they recognized that cancellation was in the best interests of their players and teams.

On Monday, the Basketball Federation cancelled their 2020 season for the same reasons as the Rugby Federation, again in contradiction of their earlier agreement with CONI.

Which brings us back to Tuesday' late night message from Enzo . . .

 The Varese Skorpions are

undefeated and tied for first at the

half way point of the 2020 season

Girone C Standings

1T. Varese Skorpions 0-0

1T. Modena Vipers 0-0

1T. Monza Brianza Hammers 0-0

1T. Reggio Emilia Hogs 0-0

1T. Savona Pirates 0-0

The essence of Enzo's message, which he explained in depth to me in a phone conversation this morning, was a simple one.

Members of our Skorpions Board of Directors as well as several coaches in Italy that I have been talking with over the last month, all know people in FIDAF's inner circle.

The consistent word on the grapevine has been that FIDAF had decided to cancel the 2020 season. They have been reluctant to announce their decision as they, unlike the Rugby and Basketball Federations, prefer to honor their original decision with CONI.

Enzo and our Board believed that knowing all of this to be true, it was time for me to go home to Camarillo.

With all of this information now in front of me, I agreed to go home.

Enzo talked with his travel agent and the team bought me a new return ticket that has me leaving Italy this coming Sunday which is Easter.

My itinerary is a good one at a good price under the current circumstances.

I'll fly out of Milan's Malpensa Airport at 7:00 a.m on Sunday for a 70 minute flight down to Rome.

My layover in Rome's Fiumicino Airport is only 80 minutes long. I will then fly to London's Heathrow Airport at 9:30 a.m., a flight that will take two hours and 55 minutes.

My final layover of the day in London will last three hours and 35 minutes. At 3:00 p.m., I will board a plane heading to Los Angeles for my last flight of the day that will last 11 hours and 20 minutes.

If all goes according to plan, I will land at LAX at 6:20 p.m. on Sunday, 20 hours and 20 minutes after leaving Milan.

Rather than facing possible exposure to the Coronavirus, Laurie has already contracted a private company to pick me up at LAX and drive me home to Casa Contreras in Camarillo.

Then, I will start two more weeks of isolation before I am allowed to be with other people including Laurie.

She has already drawn up the plans to divide our house in half in a way that should allow us to live together but still apart.

The movie Ladyhawke came to mind when I heard her foolproof plan.

I'm Going HOME!

In the afternoon, I made the Skorpion players and coaches aware of the days happenings via a video that I made and uploaded to our team's WhatsApp site.

I had to bid them all a bittersweet farewell.

What might have been . . .

Huge Easter Sunday chocolate

eggs are a tradition in Italia

As usual, the Nardi family next door (Santa Barbara, Federica and Raffaele with Giorgio still in exile in Switzerland) came through with this egg as a gift.

Ever helpful, Santa Barbara knew of the club's decision and told me to just leave everything in The Bunker and that she would take care of it and clean the place. She would have everything ready for our return in 2021.

I thanked her but told her that I had plenty of time to clean up and pack away the things that I was not taking home on Sunday.

Santa Barbara never fails to go that one extra step in helping me survive.

Day 88 living in Varese this year was indeed interesting.

Just Another Stay at Home Tuesday

Tuesday, 7 April, 2020

Day XXX of the Great Italian Lockdown was also the 35th day since our last Varese Skorpions American football practice.

Ireland today became the third

European country to cancel their

2020 American football season

Ireland joined France and Switzerland in making this difficult decision.

I have to wonder why Europe's two hardest hit Coronavirus countries, Italy and Spain, continue in the postponement mode with no announcements as to what their American football federations timelines for cancellation might be.

The news from California today dealt with what Michael, Vanessa and the grandkids were doing to beat the Lockdown boredom.

A Vanessa photoshoot it was!

I preface this with the reminder that our son Michael loves history. Because of this, he has for years now been an American Civil War re-enactor. He also plays in an 1880's rules baseball league. In both cases, he wears period correct uniforms and equipment.

In his Civil War garb he fights for the Union, in baseball he is part of the Redondo Beach Wharf Rats.

On to Vanessa's photoshoot . . .

Jacob, the Corporal and Mary

Jacob, Mikey Ballgame and Mary

Gloves have changed over the years

 SOMEBODY CALL IT!

Murder's Row

GREAT photos, Vanessa!

 Laurie was doing craft work

today to stay busy

Looks like she drank less wine than usual this week.

Meanwhile, the latest from the web . . .

 So many travel choices,

so MUCH time!

I know EXACTLY how he feels!

I did get a little bit of sports inserted into my evening with a good defensive pass coverage clinic online. Our speaker tonight in the Coaches Exchanging Zoom meeting was the Defensive Coordinator of the Vienna Vikings, Chris Calaycay.

He did a great job, giving us lots to think about.

Reading Is FUNdamental!

If you are ever quarantined for

XXX days, this is a great read

to get you through the lonely nights

A historical novel, 1,070 pages in length, with lots of intrigue and plot twists. 

No telling what exciting things are in store on Wednesday . . .

Clinic Speech Preparation Day

Monday, 6 April, 2020

Day XXIX of the Great Italian Lockdown and the 34th consecutive day without a Varese Skorpions American football practice was as tedious as usual.

Such a pity as it was a BEAUTIFUL day for American football!

In the evening, I was scheduled to talk for 90 minutes in one of these wildly popular on-line Zoom meetings with a bunch of fellow coaches from all over Europe and Mexico. Thus, most of my day was spent editing and re-editing my talk as I did not want to let my peers down.

We started holding these meetings last week and held three of these fun, interesting coaching soirées up to today.

The pace would quicken this week as we had someone giving us a clinic on each of the next five evenings.

Besides enjoying the sorely missed fellowship and the imparting of American football knowledge, these meetings are a great diversion from the Coronavirus-Bunker Life grind.

I did have some time to peruse the internet . . .

Mark Johnson showing off his new

Washington Huskies face mask

His wife Susie made it for him.

A cottage industry in the making?

 Your mind will be clearer IF

you follow these simple guidelines

 I have used five of these to

while away the weeks

ABSOLUTELY!!!

"Day 21 . . ."

I see no problem with it

 Absolutely TRUE!

As for my clinic speech . . .

My two part topic was "What I've Learned About American Football Since 1958" and "Being Aggressive with the Kicking Game."

I had fun doing the clinic and had several questions about the various fakes that we use out of our Punt and Field Goal formations.

Today was a full day indoors to be sure.

Esselunga Sunday

Sunday, 5 April, 2020

Day XXVIII of the Great Italian Lockdown was also the 33rd consecutive day without a Varese Skorpions American football practice.

It was Palm Sunday but who knew?

We were originally slated to play the Monza Brianza Hammers last night in Game Four of our eight game regular season schedule.

After a late night game, today would have been a beautiful day to unwind.

It was not meant to be.

It was a gorgeous, warm day!

A perfect day for a small Italian

backyard BBQ for seven or eight friends

to get together to dine and visit

But not these days of course.

The Esselunga's Café was still closed

A brioche and a cappuccino from this spot was always a good way to start a supermarket shopping spree.

They took my temperature before entering the Esselunga. Happy to report that I tased muster!

As it has been every Sunday during the Lockdown, the supermarket was both fully stocked and empty of shoppers.

Thus, shopping was a breeze and, I must admit, I looked sharp in my mask.

Speaking of mask . . .

As for Saturday's Coronavirus statistics in Italy, we had mixed results . . .

There were 681 deaths on Saturday which was less than on Friday. The total number of fatalities in Italy now stands at 15,362.

After Saturday's 2,886 new cases, 547 more than on Friday, Italy currently has 88,274 infected people.

On Saturday, another 1,238 patients were deemed recovered bringing the total number of recovered Italians to 20,996.

It was a peaceful Sunday spent reading and preparing for my speaking engagement on Monday night's ZOOM meeting with fellow coaches from around Europe, Mexico and Canada.

And the beat goes on . . .